The Sony report examines the barriers to a more sustainable media and entertainment industry

Sony has published new research on employers’ approach to sustainability in the media and entertainment industry in Europe. The report, titled “Means & Mindset: The State of Sustainability in the Media Industry,” highlights how seriously the industry is taking steps to become more environmentally conscious.

The aim of the research, which was carried out using Sony’s own European contact database, was to provide a realistic view of the industry’s sustainability record, covering both positive changes already made and the barriers to further, more significant changes.

The encouraging news is that research found that while only 40% of companies valued being seen as more sustainable, almost three quarters of companies (73%) have made operational changes to reduce their environmental impact. The most common actions taken were to review required travel requirements and on-site staffing levels (46% and 33%, respectively) and make changes to on-site operations (45%).

What was particularly interesting, however, was that more than half of respondents did not believe that customers, end users or viewers were the driving force for change in media companies. Instead, they pointed out that their organization’s employees had the greatest influence here.

While the results show that companies value being perceived as more environmentally friendly, the reality is that the obstacles standing in their way are greater than ever before. For this reason, Sony asked what these barriers were.

It’s no surprise that the financial investment required to make the industry more sustainable was seen as the biggest barrier by respondents (46%). Almost 50% of respondents also said that costs were the reason why their company was not actively reducing its environmental footprint.

While more than half of respondents (52%) said cost is at least sometimes considered in existing procurement and purchasing processes, 55% said cost is more important than the sustainability of a device.

Perhaps even more surprising, Sony’s research found that industry culture and behavior was the second biggest barrier to both the overall industry (41%) and individual companies (46%) becoming more active in sustainability.

Olivier Bovis, Director and Head of Media Solutions Business at Sony Europe, commented: “It is clear from this study that companies need to invest more in their own sustainability practices to enable the industry to better address environmental challenges.

“But beyond the financial aspect, we found that a mindset shift was most needed and that employees felt they had the greatest influence on operational change. That’s why we invite companies across the industry to use this to their advantage.

“Sustainability should be viewed as a currency with which to implement change. We need to ensure that suppliers, partners and users ‘stay honest’ as part of a change movement and not just sit idly by because ‘that’s how we’ve always done it’.”

Read the full report.